Mr G. K. Chesterton, in one of the many drinking songs he has written, tells us that
Before the RomansRoman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
G.K.C., whatever his knowledge may be of the habits of the English drunkard, appears to have gone all astray in his description of English trackways before the Romans landed.
They were all straight, not rolling.
At least, that is the conclusion of Mr Alfred Watkins, who in an interesting booklet on “Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps, and Sites” explains how our ancestors in the Neolithic age, when they wanted their supplies of salt and flint from any distance, made their shopping excursions and found their way about.
In that respect they were wiser than we, for they made it their business to take short, straight lines to their objectives. These straight lines, or trackways, according to Mr Watkins, were marked out by experts on the sighting system, in much the same way that a marksman gets the back and fore sights of his rifle in line with the target.
Such sighting lines, called leys or lays, were in the earliest times, from natural mountain peak to mountain peak, with further natural or artificial marking points on the lower ground between the principal points. These secondary artificial marking or sighting points were usually constructed of earth, water, stone, or made by planting trees, and the principal feature of the track was that it ran straight, except, of course, in cases of physical impossibility.
The distance of these leys, according to the author, disposes of the assumption that orderly road planning was introduced by the Romans, and he also points out:—
The fact of the ley is embedded in the rural mind. A countryman in directing your path will invariably bring in the now misleading, but once correct, “keep straight on.” It was once absolutely necessary to “keep straight on” in the ley, for if you did not you would be deleyed on your journey. This is not said as a pun, but, as in some succeeding sentences, to point out the place of the ley in the evolution of our language.
That passage will strike some readers as being a little far-fetched, or perhaps, to be one of the faulty deductions which Mr Watkins warns us in his Foreword he may have made.
At the same time, however, this little booklet is full of valuable and interesting information, which should certainly be followed up by everyone who has any knowledge of the subject. There are some very good photographs in the publication which certainly provide convincing proof of many of the author’s conclusions. Particularly worthy of mention are the illustrations of mark-stones, and the author’s note on these.
Altogether the booklet is so full of new facts that no one interested in the history of his own land can afford to miss
reading it.
G. V. T.
“early british trackways, moats, mounds, camps, and sites.” by alfred watkins. (the watkins meter co., hereford.)
Source info: MS note by AW “North Mail June 9th”.